Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn
| Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn | ||||
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| Studio album by Joe Henderson | ||||
| Released | 1992 | |||
| Recorded | September 3–8, 1991 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 61:50 | |||
| Label | Verve | |||
| Producer | Richard Seidel, Don Sickler | |||
| Joe Henderson chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |
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Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn (also known as Lush Life) is an award-winning 1992 tribute album by jazz composer and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson. Composed entirely of songs written by jazz legend Billy Strayhorn, the album was a critical and commercial success, leading to the first of three Grammys Henderson would receive while under contract with Verve Records and helping to establish Henderson an international star. The album had sold nearly 90,000 copies at the time of Henderson's death in 2001 and has been multiply re-released by Verve, Polygram Records and, in Hybrid SACD, by Universal.
Before this record, in March 1991, Henderson had recorded "The Standard Joe", with Rufus Reid on bass and Al Foster on drums, produced by Italian label Red Records. Henderson had been featured throughout the late 80s and early 90s on recordings by a number of modern jazz musicians, including Wynton Marsalis, when producer Richard Seidel proposed to him the idea of the tribute album to be released under his own name. The album separated the songwriter from his usual material, which according to The New York Times suited Henderson, highlighting his evolution into "one of jazz's most detailed improvisers". Like The New York Times—which credits the album's producers for understanding jazz culture of 1992, "where challenging acoustic music is both an artistic necessity and a play for a market"—Ink Blot Magazine describes the album's success as largely due to its instrumental combinations; rather than performing with a band, Henderson is featured in solo performance, in duet, in trio, in quartet and quintet.Entertainment Weekly agrees that the idea of highlighting the material by dramatically changing personnel "works without getting gimmicky".
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